Alex Buerkle
@disequilibber.bsky.social
Bioinformatics at Illumina. Previously at Gencove and a professor at the University of Wyoming
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Every time you read about peptides, think "molecules" instead and see if the text still makes sense:
"The internet loves therapy using molecules. Is it really a miracle cure?"
Btw, insulin is a peptide. If you're a Type I diabetic, this peptide absolutely is a miracle cure. And perfectly safe.
"The internet loves therapy using molecules. Is it really a miracle cure?"
Btw, insulin is a peptide. If you're a Type I diabetic, this peptide absolutely is a miracle cure. And perfectly safe.
November 25, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Every time you read about peptides, think "molecules" instead and see if the text still makes sense:
"The internet loves therapy using molecules. Is it really a miracle cure?"
Btw, insulin is a peptide. If you're a Type I diabetic, this peptide absolutely is a miracle cure. And perfectly safe.
"The internet loves therapy using molecules. Is it really a miracle cure?"
Btw, insulin is a peptide. If you're a Type I diabetic, this peptide absolutely is a miracle cure. And perfectly safe.
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
The peptide discussion highlights how little people know about chemistry. Peptides are such a huge group of chemicals treating them as one thing is absurd. Many peptides are perfectly safe. (Your food is full of peptides.) Others are toxic. Every peptide needs to be evaluated as its own thing.
"The growing popularity of these drugs [peptides]
shows that many people will experiment with them long before science confirms they work or are safe."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/w...
my review erictopol.substack.com/p/the-peptid...
shows that many people will experiment with them long before science confirms they work or are safe."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/w...
my review erictopol.substack.com/p/the-peptid...
The Internet Loves Peptide Therapy. Is It Really a Miracle Cure?
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:34 PM
The peptide discussion highlights how little people know about chemistry. Peptides are such a huge group of chemicals treating them as one thing is absurd. Many peptides are perfectly safe. (Your food is full of peptides.) Others are toxic. Every peptide needs to be evaluated as its own thing.
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
i’m not crying you’re crying
xkcd: Fifteen Years
xkcd: Fifteen Years
Fifteen Years
xkcd.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:58 AM
i’m not crying you’re crying
xkcd: Fifteen Years
xkcd: Fifteen Years
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
I'm recruiting a new master's student for fall 2026 in my lab at Northern Michigan University @bionmu.bsky.social ! Students with interests in evolution of freshwater fish are encouraged to apply. Please see our lab website lizmandeville.github.io and the attached advertisement for more information.
Mandeville Lab
Fish are so delightfully weird. We study the evolutionary genetics and ecology of freshwater fishes, plus a few more things, at Northern Michigan University
lizmandeville.github.io
November 24, 2025 at 2:35 PM
I'm recruiting a new master's student for fall 2026 in my lab at Northern Michigan University @bionmu.bsky.social ! Students with interests in evolution of freshwater fish are encouraged to apply. Please see our lab website lizmandeville.github.io and the attached advertisement for more information.
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Most of the people we read about are those we already knew were horrible or have just been revealed to be horrible.
Jessie Diggins, North America’s greatest cross country skier, has been a consistent antidote. Sad she’s retiring but am grateful to have witnessed one of her top 3 moments.
Jessie Diggins, North America’s greatest cross country skier, has been a consistent antidote. Sad she’s retiring but am grateful to have witnessed one of her top 3 moments.
Three Frames: Jessie Diggins and the Art of What Endures – FasterSkier
“Hi, everyone,” she began, smiling with that practiced combination of approachability and poise that has made her — for more than a decade — the emotional center of American cross-country skiing.
fasterskier.com
November 22, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Most of the people we read about are those we already knew were horrible or have just been revealed to be horrible.
Jessie Diggins, North America’s greatest cross country skier, has been a consistent antidote. Sad she’s retiring but am grateful to have witnessed one of her top 3 moments.
Jessie Diggins, North America’s greatest cross country skier, has been a consistent antidote. Sad she’s retiring but am grateful to have witnessed one of her top 3 moments.
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Amanda Sabatino, @jpjahner.bsky.social and I have a new paper on @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social. Amanda, in her undergraduate thesis work, found variation in Colias colour phenotypes is associated with different metrics of urbanization in Toronto. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Anthropogenic factors explain wing colour variation in Colias (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) butterflies across the Toronto urbanization gradient
Hybridization, or interbreeding between two previously diverged populations, is increasing due to human influences on the environment. Rates of hybridization might be increasing particularly quickly a...
www.biorxiv.org
November 19, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Amanda Sabatino, @jpjahner.bsky.social and I have a new paper on @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social. Amanda, in her undergraduate thesis work, found variation in Colias colour phenotypes is associated with different metrics of urbanization in Toronto. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Congratulations to @michellezavala.bsky.social on the publication of one of her PhD. This research builds on #NSF-funded #PopUpPoplar research using WGS and replicate common gardens to understand how climate and hybridization influence stomata evolution
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Climate and hybridization shape stomatal trait evolution in Populus
Stomata play a critical role in regulating plant responses to climate. Where sister species differ in stomatal traits, interspecific gene flow can influence the evolutionary trajectory of trait vari...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Congratulations to @michellezavala.bsky.social on the publication of one of her PhD. This research builds on #NSF-funded #PopUpPoplar research using WGS and replicate common gardens to understand how climate and hybridization influence stomata evolution
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Amazing to have a byline with @cbo.bsky.social - read our take on Watson’s ultimate legacy in the Boston Globe. Will be in Sunday’s print edition.
"What James Watson got wrong about DNA"
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
What James Watson got wrong about DNA - The Boston Globe
The science he helped pioneer consistently undermines his view that genes determine everything about us.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Amazing to have a byline with @cbo.bsky.social - read our take on Watson’s ultimate legacy in the Boston Globe. Will be in Sunday’s print edition.
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
"What James Watson got wrong about DNA"
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
What James Watson got wrong about DNA - The Boston Globe
The science he helped pioneer consistently undermines his view that genes determine everything about us.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:50 PM
"What James Watson got wrong about DNA"
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Well, it's a little clearer now why billionaires are so invested in technology that produces better written emails.
November 12, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Well, it's a little clearer now why billionaires are so invested in technology that produces better written emails.
More plainly visible and dynamic than I have seen before
November 12, 2025 at 4:21 AM
More plainly visible and dynamic than I have seen before
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
IT GOT BETTER
📍Central MN
📍Central MN
November 12, 2025 at 3:05 AM
IT GOT BETTER
📍Central MN
📍Central MN
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
If you're interested in working with me on a master's or PhD with questions related to genomics, biodiversity, and climate change, I'd love to chat about the CAMBIUM fellowship! There's an informational webinar next week and applications are due December 1st.
Join us on Nov 18 at 2:30 PM MST to learn about CAMBIUM grad fellowships in biodiversity informatics & climate change @uarizona.bsky.social. For incoming Fall 2026 students interested in big data, ecology, evolution, climate adaptation & more. Register: events.trellis.arizona.edu/en/f44lNu67/... 🌵🧬🌐
November 10, 2025 at 6:56 PM
If you're interested in working with me on a master's or PhD with questions related to genomics, biodiversity, and climate change, I'd love to chat about the CAMBIUM fellowship! There's an informational webinar next week and applications are due December 1st.
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Very interesting perspective! I often have the opposite thought: "Experimenting like a modeller"
Perhaps the two could co-exist for better workflows. Extensive exploration on simulated data should be the norm before running experiments to make sure the design is capable of the intended inference.
Perhaps the two could co-exist for better workflows. Extensive exploration on simulated data should be the norm before running experiments to make sure the design is capable of the intended inference.
"Validate With Simulated Truth: A first habit is to test whether an analytical pipeline can recover known conditions."
Very good advice below. So much COVID nonsense (e.g. 'immunological dark matter') basically came down to a non-identifiable model that hadn't been properly tested.
Very good advice below. So much COVID nonsense (e.g. 'immunological dark matter') basically came down to a non-identifiable model that hadn't been properly tested.
Modelling Like an Experimentalist
Dahlin et al. (2024) apply experimental thinking to a model of mosquito-borne disease transmissions.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Very interesting perspective! I often have the opposite thought: "Experimenting like a modeller"
Perhaps the two could co-exist for better workflows. Extensive exploration on simulated data should be the norm before running experiments to make sure the design is capable of the intended inference.
Perhaps the two could co-exist for better workflows. Extensive exploration on simulated data should be the norm before running experiments to make sure the design is capable of the intended inference.
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Reading that article led me to seek out other writing by Coviello. This is an excellent piece relevant to everyone in or who cares about American academia. www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
November 9, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reading that article led me to seek out other writing by Coviello. This is an excellent piece relevant to everyone in or who cares about American academia. www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Amy Angert and I are recruiting a #postdoc to participate in a collaborative NSF-funded study of demographic responses to climate across the geographic range of the scarlet monkeyflower. Please repost! jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/224...
November 7, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Amy Angert and I are recruiting a #postdoc to participate in a collaborative NSF-funded study of demographic responses to climate across the geographic range of the scarlet monkeyflower. Please repost! jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/224...
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
I am so proud & happy to see our Potamo genome assembly finally out there in the world! The process ended up being way more challenging than expected, but for some really cool reasons. ❤️🐌🧬
TLDR: Surprise! A VERY recent WGD.
academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
Photo: C. Böck, ILIM, Mondsee, Austria)
TLDR: Surprise! A VERY recent WGD.
academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
Photo: C. Böck, ILIM, Mondsee, Austria)
November 5, 2025 at 4:50 PM
I am so proud & happy to see our Potamo genome assembly finally out there in the world! The process ended up being way more challenging than expected, but for some really cool reasons. ❤️🐌🧬
TLDR: Surprise! A VERY recent WGD.
academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
Photo: C. Böck, ILIM, Mondsee, Austria)
TLDR: Surprise! A VERY recent WGD.
academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
Photo: C. Böck, ILIM, Mondsee, Austria)
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
We have TWO post-doctoral fellowships in the Biodiversity Centre at UBC next year! Am happy to chat if you might want to be hosted in my lab. biodiversity.ubc.ca/training-and... Deadline January 15th!
November 3, 2025 at 5:16 PM
We have TWO post-doctoral fellowships in the Biodiversity Centre at UBC next year! Am happy to chat if you might want to be hosted in my lab. biodiversity.ubc.ca/training-and... Deadline January 15th!
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
We are hiring! Postdoc position exploring the ecological niche of the Molassodon ecospecies of Vibrio parahaemolyticus, that we @campy-bara.bsky.social have previously shown has a distinct "hunt, kill, devour phenotype in the laboratory. details here: www.simm.cas.cn/web/rcdw/rcz... please share.
病原菌定量基因组学研究组（DANIEL FALUSH组）博士后招聘启事----中国科学院上海药物研究所
www.simm.cas.cn
October 31, 2025 at 4:40 AM
We are hiring! Postdoc position exploring the ecological niche of the Molassodon ecospecies of Vibrio parahaemolyticus, that we @campy-bara.bsky.social have previously shown has a distinct "hunt, kill, devour phenotype in the laboratory. details here: www.simm.cas.cn/web/rcdw/rcz... please share.
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Impressive how this article cites a who-is-who among anti-science grifters. For anybody who needs a dose of reality, this video is excellent.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=miJb...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=miJb...
conspiracy physics and you (and also me)
YouTube video by Angela Collier
www.youtube.com
October 21, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Impressive how this article cites a who-is-who among anti-science grifters. For anybody who needs a dose of reality, this video is excellent.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=miJb...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=miJb...
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Here is something you will only find in this part of the UP.
A person on FB selling a 515 lb piece of "float copper"
This means it is a piece of nearly pure copper deposited here during the last deglacial.
People search for these with metal detectors since anything at the surface has been found.
A person on FB selling a 515 lb piece of "float copper"
This means it is a piece of nearly pure copper deposited here during the last deglacial.
People search for these with metal detectors since anything at the surface has been found.
October 21, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Here is something you will only find in this part of the UP.
A person on FB selling a 515 lb piece of "float copper"
This means it is a piece of nearly pure copper deposited here during the last deglacial.
People search for these with metal detectors since anything at the surface has been found.
A person on FB selling a 515 lb piece of "float copper"
This means it is a piece of nearly pure copper deposited here during the last deglacial.
People search for these with metal detectors since anything at the surface has been found.
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Administrators at Indiana University baselessly fired the student media director and ordered the student paper to cease its print edition, so it'd sure be a shame if this excellent digital front page were to be widely shared today
issuu.com/idsnews/docs...
issuu.com/idsnews/docs...
October 17, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Administrators at Indiana University baselessly fired the student media director and ordered the student paper to cease its print edition, so it'd sure be a shame if this excellent digital front page were to be widely shared today
issuu.com/idsnews/docs...
issuu.com/idsnews/docs...
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
Our paper is out! We found out that there are seasonal changes in shallow sediments which potentially upends any study that has interpreted them as a static environment. Including my own papers.
Influence of Seasonal Succession on Microbiological and Physiochemical Composition in Shallow Estuarine Sediments enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #jcampubs
Influence of Seasonal Succession on Microbiological and Physiochemical Composition in Shallow Estuarine Sediments
Marine sediments harbour diverse microbial populations, thought to be of low activity due to depleted electron acceptors and lack of new organic matter after burial. We show that deeper microbial pop...
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 16, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Our paper is out! We found out that there are seasonal changes in shallow sediments which potentially upends any study that has interpreted them as a static environment. Including my own papers.
Reposted by Alex Buerkle
